2015-09-17 To Serve & Inspect: Digital Challenges for School Resource Officers from Frederick Lane A presentation delivered to an audience of school resource officers, administrators, and counselors at the Criminal Justice Institute in Little Rock, Arkansas, on September 17, 2015. If you are interested in discussing a presentation for professional development or continuing education for…
2015-09-16 Social Media and Emerging Applications: Investigative Potential and Legal Issues from Frederick Lane The Criminal Justice Institute in Little Rock, Arkansas, invited me to design and present a one-day continuing education course for Arkansas law enforcement officers. The course was certified for 7 hours of CLE credit by the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement…
Back in June, I wrote about the case of Patrick Newman, a Social Studies teacher at Trinity High School, an all-boys Catholic school in Louisville, KY. Following a tip by Twitter to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, investigators determined that Newman had used Vine (a video app owned by Twitter), Kik, and…
A four-month investigation resulted in the arrest and jailing of a 39-year-old elementary school teacher named Eric Shank Van Eenige. According to Van Eenige’s public defender Sandra Bennewitz, he has taught at the Ariel Elementary Community School in Chicago’s North Kenwood neighborhood for the past decade, earning just over $85,000 per year from the Chicago…
This story does not describe a common cybertrap for young people, fortunately, but it does help illustrate a couple of relevant points: first, that if young people have a camera available to them at all times (as nearly 100% do), they will occasionally take photos of private activities, and second, even if those private activities…
In a press release issued June 2, Acting United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr. (W.D. Kentucky) announced that his office had arrested Patrick Newman, 35, and charged him with violating child exploitation laws. Prior to the announcement by Kuhn, Newman taught Social Studies at Trinity High School, an all-boys Catholic school located in Louisville,…
On Friday, May 27, the Greenville County School District had the unpleasant task of sending a letter to the parents of 149 students at Mauldin High School and Mauldin Middle School to inform them that a district teacher had traded photographs of their children for child pornography. Meetings were scheduled at Mauldin High School so…
June is typically the month for momentous decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, and this year’s round of society-shifting decisions is off to a rapid start. In Elonis v. United States, announced on the morning of June 1, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a man who allegedly threatened his ex-wife (and others) in…
Cape May County Prosecutor Cape May County Prosecutor Robert Taylor announced on May 26 that his office has charged 19 juveniles and 1 adult in a two-school sexting scandal. On April 23, a female student told school officials at the Lower Cape May Regional High School that nude photos of a friend were being shared…
Mariann Casados, a physical education teacher in the Mora Independent School District in Mora, New Mexico, was arrested on May 18, 2015 and charged with “a fourth-degree felony of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.” According to the affidavit filed by the New Mexico State Police [see below], the girl’s mother had looked through…
